Science Ethics

August 1, 2013

Senator Lillian E. Dyck, Saskatchewan – News of the experiments done on Indian children in residential schools is a shocking reminder of how Canadian society viewed aboriginal peoples. The lack of empathy for these children by the scientists was cruel and racist.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo is right when stating these experiments would never have happened if First Nations had been in charge at the schools. But we also should have had FN scientists in charge of the experiments as well.  A FN scientist would not have seen these kids as lab rats to poke and prod, s/he would have seen them as lovable children and s/he would have found ways to help them rather than use them for her/his benefit.

There may not have been ethical guidelines at the time, but that’s not an excuse. The scientists involved had morals and a conscience to guide them. Sadly, they appear to have had no personal qualms about conducting such heartless research.

I published a review paper in 1986 entitled, “Are North American Indians biochemically more susceptible to the effects of alcohol?” The impetus for it and several subsequent papers was my desire to set the scientific record straight.

In most studies, North American Indians were seen as inferior or defective compared to whites. That’s because most scientists on the continent were (and still are) white men with the same mindset or gender and racial bias of the dominant culture.

As an aboriginal scientist, my perspective was different. I looked for similarities between Indians and Caucasians, not for deficiencies in First Nations. Moreover, if I had observed a difference, I would have looked for confounding factors that might account for it rather than attribute the difference to racial inferiority.

My work showed that there were no differences in the major alcohol metabolizing enzymes between Caucasians and Indians in Saskatchewan.

*Note 1: The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect the views of and/or official policy of the Aboriginal Peoples’ Commission and/or the Liberal Party of Canada*
*Note 2: The blog was published in the language it was received*